An Era Understood Through Fitzgerald’s Characters Essay

â€Å"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.†¦ Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.†¦ And one fine morning—† (Fitzgerald 180). In this quote from The Great Gatsby, Nick attempts to describe the nature of Gatsby’s hope and draws the parallel to all of our hopes and dreams that we have as Americans. F. Scott Fitzgerald, an American novelist and short-story writer, was an amazing author who used his work, just like in the quote above, to write about the Roaring Twenties and the hopes of Americans during that time. His earlier works show an idealistic feeling for the potentials of life at college and in â€Å"The East,† he attained the sobriquet of â€Å"the spokesman of the Jazz Age.†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦Zelda served a vital role in the writers life, both in an uncontrolled way and a motivating one. For the most part, she shared his excessive existence and i nventive interests (Prigozy 1). For an extended time, Fitzgerald resided with his wife in Long Island and while they were there, the setting for The Great Gatsby was influenced. Exactly like in his novel, he entertained in a fashion comparable to his characters, serving the best and most expensive liquors and including wonderful entertainment for his guests. He validated the antics of the foolish, careless rich, and carried this approach with him wherever he went. Egocentric, drunk, and unconventional, Fitzgerald and his wife pursued and received attention of all kinds. The big party finally came to an abrupt end with the hospitalization of Zelda for schizophrenia and, unpredictably, with the Great Depression of 1929, which triggered Fitzgeralds personal depression (Tompkins). Both The Great Gatsby and â€Å"Winter Dreams† reveal the age in which Fitzgerald lived through his characters. So much so, that he is regarded as a historian in the era. After World War I, American society went through a period of intense change. Traditional principles in God, country, and civilization were traumatized as Americans confronted the anguish of a war of that degree. During the 1920s, many Americans acknowledged that an old order had been substituted by a new, open society, oneShow MoreRelatedF. Scott Fitzgerald s The Great Gatsby Essay1490 Words   |  6 PagesF. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ seems to suggest that Gatsby s rags-to-riches success story makes him an embodiment of the American Dream. However, upon deeper of his character has yielded that there are aspects of Jay Gatsby that call into question his so called success. As a result, I have concluded that F.Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, although still displays the overarchi ng theme that is the American Dream it, in fact, portrays ‘The disintegration of the American dream’ through the characterRead MoreThe Great Gatsby By F. 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